NowGamer: Speaking exlusively to NowGamer in part one of our huge in-depth interview with Heavy Rain auteur David Cage, the outspoken director feels that the industry needs to grow up."As an industry we make games for teenagers and kids" says Cage "so we try to make things very casual and as clear as possible. The bad guys have to be very baaaaad and the hero has to have big muscles and look fantastic, and the women have to have big boobs and be very sexy because to a teenager, this is what women are."
Japanese publication GameWatch has published a bunch of Final Fantasy XIII screenshots that showcase some of the environments that will feature in the final game.Many of the environments have been seen before in trailers and screenshots, but these in-engine shots have been especially taken to show off the locales of FF13's world. Final Fantasy XIII is now nearing its Japanese release in December, and these in-engine environmental shots serve to give fans a broader idea of what the world of FF13 is like.
Late last month, Tekken 6 was released on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The editors at Japan's Gemaga decided to see how the load times stack up.Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions compared with the game running installed on the hard drive as well as running off the actual disk. When the game is installed on the hardware, there isn't that big of a difference between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 - the Xbox 360 is slightly fast by a few seconds, but no biggie.However, according to Gemaga, it takes over thirty seconds (33 seconds, to be exact) to change a character and change a stage running the actual game disc on the PS3, compared with the 11 seconds it takes to start a fight on the Xbox 360 using the game disc.
PS3Hype writes: 'LittleBigPlanet is a great PlayStation 3 Exclusive. But the sales weren't that high at launch. But now after more than a year, LittleBigPlanet has sold finaly 2.5 million copies!'
She's best known for her many achievements in the digital kitchen, but 505 Games' Cooking Mama is embracing the 21st century and using all manner of social networking tools to promote the upcoming release of Cooking Mama 3.First off, Twitter users can follow the latest news from the Cooking Mama house via her Twitter feed. 505 also promises a number of challenges for its Twitter followers.
ConnectedConsoles: 2007 was the year that Ubisoft released their new IP Assassins Creed, which was highly enjoyable for some, not so much for others. It's almost exactly two years to get Assassins Creed II made (which will be released on November 20). Though Creed fans may not have to wait too long to see something else based on the game.
Blizzard has introduced a "Pet Store" to its major World of Warcraft PC MMO franchise -- allowing users to purchase in-game pets for their characters.The pets available in the store can't be earned through gameplay, and can only be obtained via microtransactions. Blizzard has offered users services like server changes for an additional fee, but the pets represent the first time in-game content is available for purchase in WoW.
Sony and Level 5 games have finally released the much-anticipated update for PS3 exclusive RPG White Knight Chronicles that allows players to use voice chat in game in towns and during quests.In addition to the voice chat update the game adds Playstation Home awards, which will allow players to unlock clothing and accessories for your PS Home avatar by completing certain tasks.
NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe has opened the newest King of Iron Fist Tournament to all comers, with over 2.5 million copies of the standard retail, Arcade Stick and Limited editions shipped to retailers worldwide. Tekken 6 brings the biggest character line-up in the series history, the brand-new Scenario Campaign mode, spectacular High-Definition 60fps visuals with full-time variable animation blur, and an array of online fight play options.
Highlights from February include the mind-meltingly mental Half-Minute Hero on PlayStation Portable (PSP). This brilliantly original title fuses classic gaming mechanics with bite-sized thirty-second gaming to create one of the format's most audacious twists on the Role-Playing Game (RPG) genre. Animal Kororo, a ludicrously cute Puzzle game will also be published on Nintendo DS this month.
TVGB: "When the original Army of Two was released last year, it was easy enough to pass it off as just another Gears of War clone, but really it wasn't according to EA Montreal's Alex Hutchinson. He offered a few more thoughts towards the problems of the shooter genre when we asked him what it was like coming from Maxis, the developers of Spore, to a more conventional game like Army of Two: The 40th Day. "I think in the shooter genre or RPG genre, or any of these established genres people get stuck in a rut, they're inspired by other games that are the same. So everyone right now making a shooter wants to be Call of Duty, or every time you make a third-person shooter, everyone says you're Gears of War, which isn't good.""
